The Chief Steward Who Never Was … and Two New Lords of Bowland?
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THE CHIEF STEWARD WHO NEVER WAS … AND TWO NEW LORDS OF BOWLAND? William Bowland In 2009, the Cambridge University Heraldic and Genealogical Society published the first ever dedicated study of the history of the Lordship of Bowland in the form of a Special Issue of its journal The Escutcheon (Vol XV). Co-authored by a Cambridge academic and a local Bowland historian, the monograph offered an account of the ancient lordship based on primary archival research. It concluded with a definitive list of the Lords of the Forest, Master Foresters, Bowbearers and Chief Stewards dating back to the late C11th. Inevitably, in the decade since the authors conducted their research, fresh evidence has come to light in a number of areas. Most importantly, the Slaidburn Court Rolls have now been fully transcribed; a transcription which has filled important gaps in the record of the 1680s and 1690s at the time when the 2nd Duke of Albemarle (1670-88) and the 1st Duke of Montagu (1692-1709) were Lords of the Forest. Anthony Parker, a lawyer descended from the Parkers of Bradkirk, is now known to have served as Chief Steward of the Slaidburn Court between 1687-92 and his successor Ambrose Pudsay is known to have served for just one year in 1693. There is also a document recently discovered at the Cumbria Record Office in Barrow-in-Furness (BPR 1/M/9/25/3) which suggests the existence of another Chief Steward, one who never took office: Thomas Lower. The Record Office assigns this undated draft to the 1670s but there is circumstantial evidence to suggest a later date, perhaps as late as 1701. This same discovery also introduces the possibility of two new Lords of Bowland – the 1st and 2nd Earls of Bath - unrecorded in the Cambridge history but who appear to have held the Lordship of Bowland in rapid succession between 1688-1701 before it reverted to Ralph, 1st Duke of Montagu, second husband of the widowed 2nd Duchess of Albemarle (1701-9). 1 ANTHONY PARKER Anthony Parker (1657-1692) was an Oxford-educated lawyer who served as MP for Clitheroe in 1689, 1690-3. A Freeman of Preston, he was also briefly Steward of the Honor of Clitheroe from 1691 up until his death some eighteen months later. According to the Institute of Historical Research History of Parliament website, Parker was of Tory allegiance but it seems that his interest at Clitheroe stemmed almost entirely from his marriage to the daughter of Sir Thomas Stringer, who had secured a strong interest in the borough through the purchase of a large number of the town’s burgages (rental properties). Stringer served as MP for Clitheroe in 1675, 1679-81. Upon Stringer’s death in October 1689, the burgages were left in trust to Parker, affording him sufficient influence in the borough to enable his unopposed return to Parliament in 1689 and 1690. Parker’s interest was strengthened by his appointment as Steward of the Honor of Clitheroe a year later. Despite his re-election, Parker appears to have been largely inactive at Westminster. On 11 February 1693, Parker was granted three weeks’ leave of absence from Parliament, and on 3 April, he died at Clitheroe Castle having, according to a local Independent minister, ‘killed himself by his intemperance’. He was buried at Clitheroe twelve days later. Parker was succeeded by his son Christopher who served as MP for Clitheroe from 1708 to 1713. Parker’s ancestors, it was claimed, had been tenants of Bradkirk Hall ‘time out of mind’, but little is known of them before the seventeenth century. His grandfather, one of the Earl of Derby’s supporters, was the only Protestant inhabitant of Kirkham of any standing. His father, a Presbyterian elder, conformed after the Restoration and was active in local administration until removed from the commission of the peace in 1687. (http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1690- 1715/member/parker-anthony-1657-93), 2 AMBROSE PUDSAY Cambridge-educated Ambrose Pudsay of Bolton Hall, Bolton-By- Bowland was twice Sheriff of Yorkshire and served as Bailiff of the Honor of Clitheroe in 1684, 1694 and 1706. He was MP for Clitheroe between 1695-8, 1701-5. According to the Institute of Historical Research History of Parliament website, Pudsay’s father had represented Clitheroe in the Cavalier Parliament, but when his son came of age in 1676, he was faced with a mortgage of £1,500 upon Bolton Hall and a further £1,000 debt to Henry Marsden. His poor financial straits may explain his marriage to Marsden’s daughter Elizabeth, but by 1687, Pudsay had redeemed both debts, and his fortunes recovered rapidly thereafter. Pudsay was serving as Yorkshire’s Sheriff in 1683, in which capacity he was requested to assist in the pursuit of suspects in the Rye House Plot. A magistrate on the Lancashire bench, his parliamentary career enjoyed the support of the 9th Earl of Derby although he later aligned himself with the Whigs. His parliamentary career began to falter from the late 1690s. Pudsay’s short-lived service as Chief Steward of the Slaidburn Court coincided with the period when he was mostly actively engaged in Clitheroe politics opposing the election of The Hon Fitton Gerard, a kinsman of the Earl of Macclesfield. His service as Chief Steward of Bowland gave way in 1694 to his second stint as Bailiff of the Honor of Clitheroe. Ambrose Pudsay died on 4 May 1716. He was buried at Bolton Hall three days later. (http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1690- 1715/member/pudsay-ambrose-1655-1716) 3 THOMAS LOWER “The Chief Steward who never was” was recently uncovered in a draft document of appointment held by the Cumbria Record Office (CRO) in Barrow-in-Furness (BPR 1/M/9/25/3). The CRO suggests this document dates from the 1670s but the references to Chief Stewards Richard Kirkby, Curwen Rawlinson, Anthony Parker and james Sloane all point to a much later date, perhaps as late as 1701. The draft proposes “Thomas Lower, gentleman” as “Steward of the All the Courts of and within the Hundred of Clitherow, manors, lordships, forests and liberties of Furness, Dalton, Hawkshead, Egton, Newland, Newby, Slaidburne and Bowland, Co. Lancashire and Co. Yorkshire; and as Clerk of courts and sessions within the liberty of Furness, and as Receiver General and Collector of all rents etc. and Bowbearer, Gamekeeper and Bailiff and Water Bailiff, with the same powers as Richard Kirkby Esq., Curwen Rawlinson Esq., Antho. Parker Esq., Thomas Patten Esq., Jakes Sloane Esq., William Simpson and Richard Rawlinson, gentleman”. The appointment is proposed by John Granville, 1st Earl of Bath. Bath was a first cousin to General George Monck, the first post-Restoration Lord of Bowland. Like his cousin, Bath was an intimate of the King and in 1660, he actually contested his cousin’s claim to the duchy. According to Round (1930), Charles II placated Granville by granting him the Earldom of Bath as well as the reversion of the Duchy of Albemarle in the event of the failure of George Monck’s male issue. This reversion was exercised in 1688 when the 2nd Duke of Albemarle died childless. Thus, while the ducal titles became extinct, a considerable portion of the Monck estates passed to the Earl. These seem to have included rights over the Honor of Clitheroe, including the Forest of Bowland. 4 Arms of Charles Granville, 1st Earl of Bath The Thomas Lower cited is probably Thomas Lower of Trelaske House, Lewannick, a Cornish supporter of the Earl of Bath whose country seat lay in that county. There is no evidence that Lower ever took office. This is likely because of the death of his patron in 1701. We last hear of Lower in 1703 when, after five generations, he sold his ancestral home. A reflection perhaps of the decline of patronage he suffered following the death of the 1st Earl? 5 6 Tragically, for Lower, the 2nd Earl of Bath also died in 1701 from a gunshot wound during the preparations for his father’s funeral. His death was a suicide, precipitated by inheritance of his father’s heavy debts. His heir, the 3rd Earl, a minor, died of small pox in 1711. In 1701, it seems the remnant of the Monck estates reverted back to Elizabeth Cavendish, widow of the 2nd Duke of Albemarle. A daughter of the 2nd Duke of Newcastle, she had married her second husband, Ralph, 1st Duke of Montagu, in 1690. This reversion coincides with the appointment of a local worthy, Thomas Colthurst of Great Mitton rather than Thomas Lower, as new Chief Steward. Colthurst loyally served the Duke of Montagu until the Duke’s death in 1709. CONCLUDING REMARKS The discovery of a draft document of appointment for Thomas Lower in the Cumbria Record Office has revealed not just the identity of a “Chief Steward who never was” but also two Lords of Bowland (1688-1701) previously lost to history. Thus, the new genealogy of the Lordship reads as follows, rendering the current titleholder, William Bowland, the 18th rather than the 16th Lord of Bowland since the Restoration: Lords of Bowland (1660-2018) 1660-1670 1st Duke of Albemarle (granted by Charles II) 1670-1688 2nd Duke of Albermarle (inherited from father) 1688-1701 1st Earl of Bath (inherited from his kinsman, 2nd Earl of Albemarle) 1701-1701 2nd Earl of Bath (inherited from his father) 1701-1709 1st Duke of Montagu (acquired by marriage on reversion to widow of 2nd Duke of Albermarle) 1709-1749 2nd Duke of Montagu (inherited from father) 1749-1790 4th Earl of Cardigan, later 1st Duke of Montagu (second creation), later 1st Baron Montagu of Boughton (inherited from father-in-law) 1790-1802 1st Earl of Beaulieu (inherited from father-in-law)